Ken Niumatalolo

Homecomings are a college football ritual, replete with memories, reflection and fellowship. Saturday was mine, in more ways than one, and it came on a grand stage: The 115th Army-Navy game. Much to my father’s regret, his only child was neither bold nor bright enough to attend either West Point or Annapolis. But from 1966, when I was 7 years old and America was at war in Southeast Asia, until 1990, when Dad was frail and the U.S. was on the brink of Desert Storm, the Army-Navy game was a cornerstone of our relationship. The academies were past their football glories of Blanchard and Davis, Bellino and Staubach, but we reveled in the competition and pageantry nonetheless. Dad served...

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